Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1859

Pastor Steven Anderson: “If You Executed the Homos Like God Recommends,” the World Would be AIDS-Free by Christmas

My wife and I were in the car a few days ago, listening to a recent episode of This American Life, when we heard a segment by reporter Debbie Nathan about border patrol checkpoints and the people who disregard the agents’ wishes. These people eventually get let through anyway because the agents have no actual legal authority — and that’s the point of the story. Nathan added that some people even videotaped their conversations with the agents just to prove that you didn’t have to listen to them.

At one point, we both perked up when Nathan mentioned one of the people who found a clever way to get around dealing with the agents.

My wife asked me, “Isn’t that the crazy pastor you always post about?”

I believe I responded with, “I DON’T POST ABOUT HIM THAT MUCH!!!” and “Yes” and “I think I need help.”

It was our friend, Pastor Steven Anderson (who has a long history battling the border patrol agents).

He actually came out looking pretty good in that episode.

I doubt Nathan had any idea that Anderson is the same guy who’s under fire this week for a sermon in which he told his congregation his plan to cure AIDS:

… If you executed the homos like God recommends, you wouldn’t have all this AIDS running rampant.

At one point, he corrected himself: It wouldn’t be “an AIDS-free world by Christmas” if we killed all the gays. But it’d be “90-some-percent AIDS-free by Christmas.”

So I guess he’s capable of fixing his mistakes…

(Actually, according to the CDC, men who have sex with men account for only “54% of all people living with HIV infection in 2011, the most recent year these data are available.” And not all of those men would call themselves gay. So he’s still way off.)

But just to drive the point home: This pastor just talked about the killing of all gay people in the country as if it were a brilliant solution to the AIDS epidemic, not a horrifying batshit crazy thing for anyone to say.

None of this is surprising to me. It’s standard Steven Anderson. I’m more appalled by how it didn’t sound like a single person walked out of his church when he said it. The people listening to him approve of what he’s saying. And if they approve of it, how long will it be before they grab their guns to take matters into their own hands?

Really, anytime your pastor says the words “Turn to Leviticus,” you know you’re in a fucked up church.

James Watson Wants to Sell His Nobel Prize; If Only He Had Some Dignity to Add to the Auction Block

About seven years ago, I heard that James Watson, the man credited with discovering the structure of DNA along with Francis Crick, was speaking in Chicago. I had to see him — who knew when that opportunity would come up again? The event itself was fine. I remember his making jokes about the silliness of religion and saying that he was hesitant about being quoted on the back of Richard Dawkins‘ The God Delusion so he wrote a blurb that was so bad, it was unusable. I’m sure I laughed at that.

But I also remember being a little taken aback by some of the politically incorrect statements he was making. (I don’t remember specifics.) It wasn’t so bad that I felt compelled to walk out of there; I was just surprised that someone so intelligent would just say whatever came to mind with no filter whatsoever.

I swear I’m kneeling

And now he’s auctioning off his Nobel Prize because, he says, he needs the money:

He said he is selling his prized medallion because he has no income outside of academia, even though for years he had served on many corporate boards. The gold medal is expected to fetch between $2.5 million and $3.5 million when it goes to auction Thursday… Watson said that he will use the money to purchase art and make donations to institutions that have supported him, such as the University of Chicago.

Man, it must be nice to need money so badly… so that you can buy a painting. I hope I’m that needy one day.

There’s a reason no one is eager to hire him, though. His public comments over the past several years have been racist, sexist, and just generally disturbing. (To be sure, they may have always been that way, but I didn’t start noticing it until a few years ago.)

Slate‘s Laura Helmuth explains:

… he told the Sunday Times that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really.” He further said that while we may wish intelligence to be equal across races, “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.”

And there’s this:

He just wouldn’t stop dismissing whole groups of people, even after his disgrace in 2007. At a science conference in 2012, for instance, he said of women in science, “I think having all these women around makes it more fun for the men but they’re probably less effective.”

And there’s this:

In a lecture hall jammed with more than 200 Berkeley students and faculty members, Watson showed a slide of sad-faced model Kate Moss to support his contention that thin people are unhappy and therefore more ambitious.

“Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you’re not going to hire them,” Watson said.

You can rationalize all of these statements to make them sound less awful than they come across; his defenders sure as hell do. But at some point, the flippant way he just dismisses people who don’t meet his particular set of standards is deplorable. It’s not just that he deems certain groups of people inferior, it’s that he also seems to show little or no empathy for their situations. (It’s not like he plans to use his auction money to benefit minorities or women in science. Because, you know, he has a painting to buy.)

I respect the guy for everything he did for science… but if he didn’t discover the structure of DNA, I don’t think people would be parsing his statements as they seem to be doing in many comment threads online. They’d dismiss him as a racist or sexist and not give him a second thought.

Given all that, I don’t know how the sale of his Nobel Prize will give him the chance to “re-enter public life” as he wishes. If anything, he ought to hold on to one of the positive symbols of his life’s work, especially since every time he opens his mouth, he just gives more people even more reason to want nothing to do with him.

This stunt is a strong reminder that just because you’re brilliant in one area of life, that doesn’t necessarily extend to all the others.

Tennessee Salvation Army Refuses Shelter To Homeless Family Because Son Is the Wrong Age and Gender

The Salvation Army loves serving the son of God. Other sons, not so much.

The Johnson City Salvation Army… turned away a homeless family with a teenage son on a cold night earlier this month, all because of the boy’s age.

Tim Lejeune says on one of the coldest nights of the year [temperature 18ºF], despite the organization’s white flag waving outside the shelter [a symbol that all are welcome], the Salvation Army turned his family away, because his son is 15 years old.

“They said he’s too old to stay on the women’s side, because of the women running around in their pajamas, and they said he’s too young to stay on the men’s side in case some pervert wants to do whatever,” Lejeune said.

Lejeune says his wife, their 15 year-old son, 16 year-old daughter and five year-old son, all down on their luck, have been living in their car for the last several weeks.

Thanks to the charitable offer of a local motel, the Lejeunes found free temporary lodging, and police officers who’d heard of the family’s predicament pooled their own money to buy groceries for them.

Salvation Army Captain Michael Cox says the organization has a longtime policy that prohibits boys ages 12 to 16 from staying at the shelter. According to Cox, the policy is in place for safety reasons; ultimately to protect children. Cox says space limitations at the shelter do not allow the building to house maturing boys. He says that policy has only been an issue once before in the last decade or so.

The soldiers for Christ did have enough heart to at least fill the Lejeunes’ gas tank,

… and even let them spend a couple nights at the shelter, but not because of any change of heart. Lejeune says their 15 year-old son is now receiving mental help at an area hospital. “He ended up having a breakdown and ended up at Woodridge and felt it was all his fault that we were homeless that we couldn’t go anywhere, because of him,” Lejeune said.

I find it hard to understand why a 15-year-old boy is an unacceptable client who may be sent back into the cold, whereas his five-year-old brother and 16-year-old sister are fine. Are the acceptable siblings in any way impervious to “perverts who want to do whatever”?

Stung by the bad publicity, the Salvation Army has announced it will take a fresh look at its shelter policy.

(Image via Shutterstock)

City Council Votes Down Mosque Saying It Can’t Be in Retail Space… Months After Approving Church in Retail Space

On Monday night, the Kennesaw City Council (in Georgia) voted down a proposed Islamic center located in a strip mall… but even that was an obstacle in itself:

… when the time came, Kennesaw Mayor Mark Matthews had trouble getting the council to take a vote at all. No member would second the motion to proceed.

After several very awkward pauses, the council finally voted. Four of the five members voted “no”.

Why would they say no when the Muslims fulfilled all the requirements of any group looking to acquire the space? Council member Debra Williams (below) made clear this had nothing to do with anti-Islamic prejudice:

Williams said she voted against the application because she did not think a religious center should operate inside a retail shopping center.

“I believe it’s a retail space. It’s as plain and simple as that,” Williams said.

Well… okay. I guess that makes some sense. She’s a woman of principle and she’s stickin–

Yet Williams and all four other council members voted unanimously in July to allow a Pentecostal church in a retail center when the council approved Redeemed Christian Fellowship Church to use a 4,000 square-foot unit in a center on the corner of Ben King Road and Cherokee Street.

Ah. Now I get it…

The rules don’t apply to Christians because they’re Christians. If the Muslims were Christians, then they’d be approved, too. See?! The solution is that simple.

There are no plans to file a lawsuit against the city council, but the Muslim group’s lawyer is advising them to take that step. I’d fully support them if they did.

(Image via Facebook. Thanks to Wesley for the link)

Many Christmas Traditions Have Little To Do with Christianity

Seth Andrews explains how atheists can celebrate Christmas even though we don’t believe in the Christian myth — and it’s the same reason we don’t care about the origins of the days of the week. In fact, there’s a lot of history behind Christmas traditions that aren’t Bible-based at all:

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit from Kansas Group Claiming the Teaching of Evolution in Science Class Promotes Atheism

Last year, the Kansas State Board of Education was sued for — wait for it — promoting atheism by way of evolution. I know you can’t even say the words “Kansas” and “Science” in the same sentence without laughing, but that really happened.

The group Citizens for Objective Public Education, Inc. (COPE) filed the lawsuit because they believed the new science standards adopted by the Board of Education, which included the teaching of evolution, were endorsing an atheistic worldview:

The Complaint alleges that the Kansas Board’s adoption on June 11, 2013, of A Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (the F&S) “will have the effect of causing Kansas public schools to establish and endorse a non-theistic religious worldview” in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Riiiiight. Because if you’re not teaching Creationism or Intelligent Design, you must be pushing anti-Christian ideas… Let’s be clear: The state standards by no means pushed atheism. If you came to that conclusion because of what you learned in science class, you did it on your own.

Earlier tonight, U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree (who said last month that a gay marriage ban in Kansas was unconstitutional) dismissed COPE’s lawsuit:

… Crabtree ruled Tuesday that a nonprofit group and individuals challenging the standards did not claim specific enough injuries to allow the case to go forward.

Which is a fancy way of saying their religious beliefs weren’t really affected by the state standards.

It’s not very often we say it, but the Kansas State Board of Education is on the right side of the science debate here. Let’s hope COPE says nope to an appeal.

I apologize for that last line.

(Large portions of this article were posted earlier. Thanks to Brian for the link)

Life After Westboro Baptist Church Has Been Tough for This Defector

Earlier this year, Zach Phelps-Roper, grandson of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps, left the church, making him the fourth of his ten siblings to walk away from the anti-gay hate group.

Mike Spies at Vocativ spent time with Zach to see how he’s doing and what he’s been going through over the past year:

After leaving the church, Zach went through long bouts of depression. He had difficulty sleeping and briefly contemplated suicide. “I felt like my life had no purpose,” he says. He waited several months before publicly announcing his departure from Westboro, and through Facebook and Twitter he started to receive occasional messages of support from strangers, including a mental health nurse in her 40s. She encouraged him to rethink his interpretation of the Bible, but Zach was initially resistant, still fearing for the fate of his soul. The nurse, however, was a patient teacher, and pushed him to challenge his fixed ideas. “I remembered the quote, ‘No peace for the wicked,’” he tells me. “I realized I was actually starting to find peace, even though Westboro would say I was wicked. I realized, OK, Westboro was literally wrong.”

The ending is just heartbreaking. Give it a read.

Why Don’t Conservative Groups Support a Ballot Initiative Establishing Christianity as Mississippi’s State Religion?

About a month ago, we learned that a Mississippi group known as the Magnolia State Heritage Campaign wanted to get an amendment on the 2016 ballot that would, among other things, establish Christianity as the state religion:

The State of Mississippi hereby acknowledges the fact of her identity as a principally Christian and quintessentially Southern state, in terms of the majority of her population, character, culture, history, and heritage, from 1817 to the present; accordingly, the Holy Bible is acknowledged as a foremost source of her founding principles, inspiration, and virtues; and, accordingly, prayer is acknowledged as a respected, meaningful, and valuable custom of her citizens. The acknowledgments hereby secured shall not be construed to transgress either the national or the state Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

They still needed 100,000 signatures to get the item on the ballot, which (even in Mississippi) wasn’t guaranteed, and even if it worked and the initiative passed, there would inevitably be legal challenges.

Despite that, you would think conservative Christian groups would be all for this. It’s the sort of thing they say all the time, and this seems like their chance to make it a reality. What say you, Mississippi-based American Family Association?

Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis for the American Family Association, told CP that he questioned the need for Initiative 46.

“I’m not clear who is behind this initiative or exactly what problems they’re trying to solve,” said Fischer of the AFA.

“I will be surprised if the organizers are able to get the number of signatures they need since most Mississippians aren’t going to see the need for it. Mississippians like the state just fine as it is.”

Fischer added that many “of the provisions in the initiative would be more appropriately handled at the state legislative level if they are to be handled at all.”

“Constitutional remedies should be reserved for issues of primary importance. The issue of school mascots, for instance, doesn’t rise to that level,” said Fischer.

That’s… not what I expected.

What about the Mississippi Baptist Convention?

William Perkins, spokesman for the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board and editor of The Baptist Record, told The Christian Post that his organization “has not been consulted and has no opinion on Initiative 46.”

“Some of the items in the initiative may have merit, but we have not conducted an in-depth study and currently have no plans to do so,” said Perkins. “It appears many of the items promulgated in the initiative are not issues in which the convention board would become involved.”

Again… weird.

I have three theories about why they’re not getting behind this.

First, it sounds like they know this is a losing battle and they hate losing in court (where precedents are set) way more than they love the idea of establishing Christianity as a state religion.

Second, they didn’t lead the charge for this initiative, which means they wouldn’t be able to take credit for it. And if they can’t take credit for it, they don’t really care about the outcome.

Finally, if this initiative were to pass, it would absolutely destroy the Christian Victim narrative they’ve latched onto for so long. Even though they’re firmly in the majority, they love pretending they’re under assault from the Left. When it comes to creating a Christian Nation, they’re far more invested in the thrill of the chase than actually reaching that goal, and donors only give money when there’s a fight to be won, not after you’ve achieved the knockout punch. So passing this ballot initiative would ultimately hurt their organizations in the long run.

They won’t admit to any of these ideas, of course. So they’re pushing lines about not really knowing the motives of the people running the Magnolia State Heritage Campaign and that the state Constitution is perfectly fine as is.

As with just about everything they say, I wouldn’t trust them.

(Thanks to Brian for the link)

Austin City Council Candidate Highlights Opponent’s Alleged Atheism in Promotional Graphic

In a not-at-all-watched runoff race for the Austin City Council in Texas, candidate Laura Pressley posted a graphic on her website explaining the differences between her and her opponent Gregorio Casar.

Most of it goes after his age and inexperience rather than his ideas — which suggests to me she has no ideas of her own worth fighting for — but she also highlights his faith as a problem:

Casar is a “self admitted atheist”! See that, everyone? Don’t vote for him!

Actually, Casar himself has said he’s Catholic, adding that going after someone’s religious beliefs are irrelevant if not inappropriate. I don’t think they’re irrelevant if they are a factor in your decision-making, but that doesn’t appear to be the case here. It’s just atheism used as a reason to disqualify a candidate. It’s a disgusting act by any politician.

Pressley, however, saw no problem with using Casar’s alleged atheism as a campaign target, even defending the practice on Facebook. The election takes place on December 16.

By the way, a commenter at WWJTD points out that Pressley’s own description says she’s been married for 15 years… yet is a grandmother. The math doesn’t quite work out if she’s itching for those conservative “values” voters.

Just sayin’…

Thanks In Part To a New Horror Movie, Ouija Boards Make a Comeback; Some Christians Warn of Dire Consequences

Upsetting news, via Google’s Commerce Blog:

Certain retro toys are making a comeback this season. Thanks to the new movie “Ouija,” searches for “Ouija boards” are up 300% since October.

What that means, of course, is that evil is on the prowl, waiting to pounce on your home and your innocent children through a magical 20-dollar piece of cardboard. Or so some Christian authorities are warning.

Exorcists and paranormal investigators are urging people not to buy the occult board game Ouija as gifts unless they want to invite demonic forces into their homes this Christmas.

The warning comes as Google predicted that the modern version of the Victorian-era ‘spirit boards’ will be a sell-out this Christmas. The search engine company has confirmed the game, purportedly used to contact the dead through spelled-out messages, is one of the top trending gifts on its price comparison list this year following the release of the Ouija horror film last month.

Here’s the trailer.

While critics largely panned the film as cliched and horror-free, a Catholic priest based in Dublin who specialises in the occult, warned that messing around with the real thing can be horrifying.

“It’s easy to open up evil spirits but it’s very hard to get rid of them,” the Vincentian priest and exorcist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the [Irish] Sunday Independent.

An early ouija board (image via Wikipedia)

“People, especially young people and teenagers who are likely to experiment with Ouija boards on a whim, can be very naive in thinking that they are only contacting the departed souls of loved-ones when they attempt to communicate with the dead using the boards. It’s like going to some parts of Africa and saying I’m personally immune to Ebola.”

Yep. A frivolous retro toy is just like Ebola.

The exorcist said evil spirits, and even demons, will masquerade as departed loved ones as a means of gaining possession and, as a result, “people don’t realise they can get infected”.

Among conservative Christians, these fears are not uncommon. Last year, we heard pastor John Hagee preaching against ouija boards, as well as against Harry Potter books and rock music — tools of Satan, all.

It wasn’t always like this. For about 75 years, the ouija game, invented in the late 1800s, when spiritualism and mediums were all the rage, was a more or less respectable and entirely mainstream way to pass the time. The illustrator Norman Rockwell, that chronicler of American wholesomeness, depicted it benignly on one of his covers for the Saturday Evening Post – as a device that literally brought a suitor closer to the rosy-cheeked, demure recipient of his affections. Similarly, a non-threatening ouija board featured prominently in a 1951 episode of I Love Lucy, to (apparently) no one’s great distress.

What changed? In 1973, The Exorcist came out. That seminal horror movie, ventured Smithsonian magazine last year,

… scared the pants off people in theaters, with all that pea soup and head-spinning and supposedly based on a true story business; and the implication that 12-year-old Regan was possessed by a demon after playing with a Ouija board by herself changed how people saw the board.

“It’s kind of like Psycho — no one was afraid of showers until that scene… It’s a clear line,” says [Ouija historian Robert] Murch, explaining that before The Exorcist, film and TV depictions of the Ouija board were usually jokey, hokey, and silly.

And just like that,

Almost overnight, Ouija became a tool of the devil and, for that reason, a tool of horror writers and moviemakers — it began popping up in scary movies, usually opening the door to evil spirits hell-bent on ripping apart co-eds. Outside of the theatre, the following years saw the Ouija board denounced by religious groups as Satan’s preferred method of communication; in 2001 in Alamogordo, New Mexico, it was being burned on bonfires along with copies of Harry Potter and Disney’s Snow White.

The occasional hullabaloo remains baffling, because the reason ouija boards “work” has nothing to do with the occult and everything with the ideometer effect, explained here and here.

By the way, Google also reported last week that

… queries for “Barbie Dream House” and “My Little Pony” are up as well compared to last month.

So far, no stories about the Dream House turning into a Haunted Mansion, or any Little Ponies becoming infected with the spirit of Chucky.